FOOTHILLS PHOTOGRAPHY GROUP

Monthly Newsletter

Volume 2 Number 9 September 2016

Photo Provided by FPC Member, Casey Bramlett

From our president….

August Critique a success! Thanks to all who participated in the non-traditional

critique process last month. I’ve heard good things about it. The board discussed

doing it again sometime with maybe a new twist added to it. For this month, we

will use the jury room and the projector for our critique time. The theme? In

keeping with last month’s program subject – candid photography—let’s see your

best candid shots. Send them to my email: dannyoung56@yahoo.com

Speaking of projectors. Foothills Photography Group wants to improve the quality of its critique

process by helping North Georgia Technical College get a new projector. After months of study and

research, John Martin announced last month that FPG will be giving $2000 to help the college buy a

$4000 projector. This will be a big help to both FPG and NGTC. The FPG board of directors has

donated $1000 from the FPG checking account. Members and friends of FPG are asked to make a

donation to this special cause. So far, with just 3 donations we have reached 25% of the goal. Can

you help? Any amount will be appreciated. And it is tax deductible. Be sure Wendy O’Connor, our

Secretary/Treasurer has your name, amount, and mailing address.

What’s New? That’s the question I’ll be asking at the beginning of each monthly meeting. It will be

your opportunity to tell us about new things in your photography life since the last meeting. What’s

New: 1. New place(s) to photograph. 2. New equipment you’ve gotten. 3. New exposure

information you learned. 4. New post processing tips you can share with the group. Come ready to

tell us on September 20, What’s New!

Thank you! Thank you! Colby Moore, for your skilled, faithful, and instructive presentations to us

each month. To all of you who volunteered to help with the newsletter. All slots are filled through

December, except for the article that month. Thank you, Board of Directors, for your work behind the

scenes to make this organization useful and enjoyable. And always a big thanks to the photography

department at NGTC for hosting our monthly meetings.

Want to win a photography contest? Here’s your chance. The Chattahoochee Mountain Fair has a

photography contest each year. Go to http://www.chattahoocheemountainfair.org/, click on Contests,

and sign up. First prize is $50. Good luck!

Happy Trails!

Danny

http://www.dannyyoungphotography.com/#!upcoming-workshops/rfm0m

Tip of the Month Provided by FPG member, Larry Holbrook

Lens Filters and why and when a “step-up ring” could save you time and money!

If you own an interchangeable-lens camera system, chances are you own more than one lens. What’s more,

there’s a good chance the filter thread diameter sizes of one or more of your lenses differ from the other lens.

For example, two lenses might have 58mm threads, while the third lens might have a 49mm, 62mm, 67mm, or

77mm thread size. Then again, each of the thread sizes might be different. And the more lenses you own, the

more likely this is going to be the case.

Once you go beyond the best-quality protector or UV filters to serve as basic protection, you may wish to use an

additional filter such as a Circular Polarizer, ND, Graduated ND, etc.

The starting point for configuring a step-up ring system is to establish a pecking order from widest diameter

thread size to the smallest. As an example, if you own three lenses—one with a 52mm thread, another with a

67mm thread, and a third with a 77mm thread—you want a filter to fit the widest diameter thread size, in this

case 77mm, and a pair of step-up rings, 67-77mm and 52-77mm, to couple the larger 77mm filter to the smaller-

diameter thread sizes.

Although thread size doesn’t affect image quality, it does have an impact on the number of filters and lens

accessories you have to keep on hand, regardless of whether you are taking pictures indoors or out. Rather than

purchasing multiples of every filter and lens accessory to go along with each of the thread sizes, consider

purchasing a single, high-quality filter to fit the lens with the largest thread size along with step-up rings to

adapt the larger filter to the lenses with smaller thread sizes. (With thanks to B&H Photo)

Quote of the Month Provided by FPG member, Colby Moore

“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.” -- Ansel Adams

Another mentoring moment, aka, having lots of fun! Danny Young, Terri Pittman, and Nikki

Pittman enjoyed several hours photographing humming birds, etc., a recent Saturday morning at the

Botanical Gardens in Athens. (Photo by Judy Glen, president of Athens Photography Guild)

Article of the Month Provided by FPG member, Danny Young

My First Mentoring Experience

The alarm clock went off at 5:00 a.m. I dressed and stepped outside the lodge door, into the 40ish

degree north Virginia morning. The cool mid-June air awakened me quickly. I walked the stone

path to the parking lot where my teacher, Ken Conger, sat on his truck’s tailgate. He greeted me and

we got in the truck and rode a few hundred yards to the place in Shenandoah National Park called

Big Meadow. We got out, checked our gear, and began scouting the meadow for signs of whitetail

does and fawns.

By nine o’clock, we had seen 12 fawns, made a bunch of pictures, and were sitting in the lodge’s

restaurant, enjoying a hearty breakfast and conversation about the morning’s adventure. After

breakfast, I went back to my room, took a nap, then returned with Ken to the meadow later in the

afternoon. We made images until dark. After dinner, we looked at my images on his laptop. He

showed me how he processed his images in Photoshop, gave me valuable tips, and we concluded the

day around 10 p.m.

That day marked the beginning of a new era in my photography journey. The year was 2007.

In 2005, I bought my first digital camera, and for the first time, I began to improve; because now I

could make practice shots. Previously, the cost of film and developing prevented that. Improvement

brought joy. The more I made images that looked like the image I saw through my viewfinder, the

more joy I experienced.

I studied online photography sites. I studied other people’s images. I thought about formal,

structured training, where I would be in a room with an instructor, but my schedule didn’t allow for

that. Besides, I knew my tendency from grade school through graduate school was to try to please

my teachers/professors and it would be hard for me not to imprint my photography art with their

styles and standards. But after two years of self study, I told my wife that I had gone as far as I could

go on my own. I needed someone to help me.

She knew I had been

admiring Ken’s photos in

Smugmug for some time.

She secretly contacted

him and bought this $250

one-day workshop (we

paid for our own room!)

that I described above, as

a birthday surprise.

The day after my

mentoring day, without

Ken being present, I again

arrived at the meadow in

the predawn darkness. I

implemented everything I

had been taught the day

before. Later in the

afternoon, because of

what I had learned from Ken, I was able to make this image of a doe and fawn, an image which has

brought warm feelings to many. Not only did Ken teach me camera stuff, he taught me nature stuff.

He knew that fawns like to run and play, but regularly, they feel insecure and they return to touch

noses with their mom, to receive assurance that all is well in their world. I expected the nose touch, I

looked for it, and when it happened, I was fortunate to have the sun at my back and to capture a

good image. I named this image, “Assurance.”

Which, as I think about it, also describes my first mentoring experience. It helped me gain assurance

that I could make better images. Better equipment, better knowledge of post processing, better

subjects, a better me….all would result in better images. I was, and I am….. assured of that!

September Program Features Our Very Own, JOHN MARTIN

John will be presenting the techniques he has used over the years in documenting his

travels around the world. He and Phoebe have traveled to over 33 countries in 24 overseas

trips.

As a backdrop for the talk he will use photos made on a trip in May of this year in which the Martins traveled to Lithuania,

Latvia, Estonia, and Finland. John will share a few of the ways the trip was planned -- emphasizing the use of the

Internet. You will hear his approach to landscapes, storytelling, architecture, interior details, and dealing with low light

situations. And, along the way, you'll be entertained by the "travel log" content!

September 20th

. Social time starts at 6:30 and program begins at 7:00.

Ashley Williams,

Casey Bramlett and

her mother, Rose

Bramlett, admire the

Foothills Photography

Group macro

photography display

at the Habersham

Medical Center. The

reception for the

display was held

August 30.

Photo by Wendy O’Connor.